Why not just multiply the monthly price by twelve?

Because it is wrong in two directions at once. The first months are a different dose at a different price — nobody starts on the maintenance dose — and a pen manufacturer's month is 28 days, which makes a year thirteen fills rather than twelve. Ozempic works out at $4,237 against the $4,188 the monthly figure implies.

Why is a year thirteen fills?

Because Lilly and Novo define a month of pens as 28 days and up to four single-dose pens. Thirteen 28-day fills is 364 days. It is the reason a savings card capped at thirteen fills covers exactly one calendar year, and the reason a naive twelve-times calculation understates a year of Zepbound or Wegovy by a full fill. The tablets are different: Foundayo and the Wegovy pill come in 30-day bottles, so their year is twelve fills, and the calculator counts each drug the way its own seller bills it.

Does this include the consultation or the membership?

Where a seller bundles them, yes — every price on this site is the all-in monthly figure covering membership plus medication, and where a seller publishes only a membership fee this site says so rather than adding an estimate. What the calculator walks is the published ladder for the drug itself.

What if I miss a refill?

On some programs that is the whole game. Lilly's self-pay prices for Zepbound hold only with a refill inside 45 days; lapse once and the higher rate applies. The calculator has a lapsed setting for exactly that, because the difference across a year is larger than most people expect.

← What a year of GLP-1 treatment costs

GLP-1 cost calculator

Bottom line

The advertised month times twelve is wrong twice: the first months are a cheaper dose, and a 28-day month makes a year of pens thirteen fills. On Ozempic that is $4,237 rather than $4,188. This walks each published step at its own price.

Last updated 2026-09-22 — each published price the ladder is built from. Read and dated by Alex Seot.

Work out your own number

Same stored prices as the tables below, walked for however long you expect to be on it. Nothing is sent anywhere; this is arithmetic in your browser.

MedicationHow long, in months: 1212 fills, counting the twelve 30-day bottles a year holds

I might miss the 45-day refill window. The self-pay rate is conditional on refilling inside it; miss it once and the higher doses list at the lapsed price.

12 months of Foundayo, at the published price of every step

$3,188

−$400 against the $3,588 that the monthly figure times 12 implies

Dose	Fills	Cost
0.8 mg	1 × $149	$149
2.5 mg	1 × $149	$149
5.5 mg	1 × $199	$199
9 mg	1 × $299	$299
14.5 mg and 17.2 mg (maintenance)	8 × $299	$2,392

Manufacturer self-pay prices only — not what a plan would charge you, and not a quote. Every figure is the one shown on the medication's own price page, with the date it was verified.

How much does a year of GLP-1 treatment actually cost?

Not twelve times the maintenance month: more on Ozempic, Wegovy and Zepbound, less on Foundayo and Wegovy pill. Two things pull in opposite directions. Nobody starts on the maintenance dose, and the first months are a lower dose at a lower price, which pulls a year down. A pen manufacturer's month is 28 days rather than a calendar month, so a year of Zepbound or Wegovy is thirteen fills, not twelve, which pushes it up; the tablets come in 30-day bottles, twelve a year, so for them only the first pull applies. Foundayo comes to $3,188 against the $3,588 the monthly figure implies; Ozempic comes to $4,237 against the $4,188 the monthly figure implies; Wegovy pill comes to $3,338 against the $3,588 the monthly figure implies. The calculator above walks each published step at its own price rather than estimating, and it runs on the same stored ladder the tables on this site render, so the two can never disagree. Where a program's price depends on refilling inside 45 days there is a lapsed setting, because that difference across a year is larger than most people expect. Every figure carries its source and the date it was read.

What the naive sum misses

Drug	Monthly × 12	Walking the ladder	Difference	Fills a year
Foundayo	$3,588	$3,188	−$400	12
Ozempic	$4,188	$4,237	+$49	13
Wegovy pill	$3,588	$3,338	−$250	12
Wegovy	$4,188	$4,237	+$49	13
Zepbound	$5,388	$5,637	+$249	13

When your savings card runs out →The full year-cost breakdown →Every verified price, ranked →What a pharmacy pays for it →

First-year cost, answered

Why not just multiply the monthly price by twelve?: Because it is wrong in two directions at once. The first months are a different dose at a different price — nobody starts on the maintenance dose — and a pen manufacturer's month is 28 days, which makes a year thirteen fills rather than twelve. Ozempic works out at $4,237 against the $4,188 the monthly figure implies.
Why is a year thirteen fills?: Because Lilly and Novo define a month of pens as 28 days and up to four single-dose pens. Thirteen 28-day fills is 364 days. It is the reason a savings card capped at thirteen fills covers exactly one calendar year, and the reason a naive twelve-times calculation understates a year of Zepbound or Wegovy by a full fill. The tablets are different: Foundayo and the Wegovy pill come in 30-day bottles, so their year is twelve fills, and the calculator counts each drug the way its own seller bills it.
Does this include the consultation or the membership?: Where a seller bundles them, yes — every price on this site is the all-in monthly figure covering membership plus medication, and where a seller publishes only a membership fee this site says so rather than adding an estimate. What the calculator walks is the published ladder for the drug itself.
What if I miss a refill?: On some programs that is the whole game. Lilly's self-pay prices for Zepbound hold only with a refill inside 45 days; lapse once and the higher rate applies. The calculator has a lapsed setting for exactly that, because the difference across a year is larger than most people expect.

Everything runs in your browser; nothing you type is sent anywhere or stored. Every price carries its source and the date it was read. Information only, not medical or financial advice.

Who the programs in this calculator are closed to

The calculator applies a card's caps. Who may use a card at all is decided elsewhere, by these.

Social Security Act §1927(d)(2), Office of the Law Revision Counsel — The statute itself, listing “agents when used for anorexia, weight loss, or weight gain” among the drugs a program may exclude.
Manufacturer safeguards may not prevent copayment coupon use for Part D drugs, HHS Office of Inspector General — Why a manufacturer copay card cannot be used with a federal program, from the office that enforces it.
Weight-loss drugs, Medicare.gov — Medicare's own page on what it does and does not cover for weight loss.